NGTS clusters survey -- II. White-light flares from the youngest stars in Orion

TL;DR

This study reports the detection of extremely energetic white-light flares from young stars in Orion, measuring their occurrence rates and predicting flare activity for similar stars in other young stellar groups.

Contribution

It provides new observations of high-energy flares from pre-main sequence stars and combines data to estimate flare rates for young M stars in nearby associations.

Findings

Detected flares with energies up to 5.2×10^35 erg.

Measured flare occurrence rates for 4 Myr M0-M3 stars.

Predicted flare rates for early M stars in young associations.

Abstract

We present the detection of high energy white-light flares from pre-main sequence stars associated with the Orion complex, observed as part of the Next Generation Transit Survey (NGTS). With energies up to $5.2\times10^{35}$ erg these flares are some of the most energetic white-light flare events seen to date. We have used the NGTS observations of flaring and non-flaring stars to measure the average flare occurrence rate for 4 Myr M0-M3 stars. We have also combined our results with those from previous studies to predict average rates for flares above $1\times10^{35}$ ergs for early M stars in nearby young associations.